The story I�m about to
share is one that has been told millions of times over since the beginning of
time on Earth. It�s the story of a youth who knew the right path to follow at a
young age, but decided that a small detour onto the path leading to the Far
Country might be worth exploring afterall ... just a little - anyway.

In the Far Country,
there is almost always pleasure to be found, if one is willing to pay the price to find
it. Not only just pleasure, but wealth and power can also be found, if one is
willing to pay an even greater price. Yet in the Far Country, you never
seem to see these words painted on the side of a building, nor on a billboard
for all to read nor heed:

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its
end is the way of death.
� Proverbs 14:12

Let's begin my journey
to the Far Country. I was greatly blessed as
a young boy. I accepted Christ at the tender age of nine years old. I was
attending Vacation Bible School during summer break. I remember being so
excited that I rushed home to tell my sister (who is a year younger than me). In
the process, I led her to Christ! Little did I know then that it was there God
birthed something in me that He has been perfecting over the years ... yet
through a great deal of pain, as you're about to hear.

That was 42 years ago as
of 2009. Today I am 51 years old, incarcerated in prison and halfway through a 20 year
sentence for Voluntary Manslaughter. A lot has happened over the course of my
life to bring me to this point. God has been with me every step of the way,
even when I did things my own selfish and rebellious way.

Growing up, I always
knew that there was something different going on inside me. I was raised in a
Christian home. I was kind of shy and never really one of the popular people, so
I was always trying to fit in. My mother was a loving, attentive woman who did
a lot of things with us. My father was a hard working man who was hard to talk
to. Whenever we had questions about anything and went to him, the answer most
of the time was �Do it because I said so.� That didn�t suffice, so I sought
answers from the guys on the block, so you can imagine the counsel I received.
I would hang out with my friends and we got into all sorts of stuff. For some
reason, I just couldn�t get away with the things we did. God was speaking. I
just wasn�t listening.

It was mandatory in my
home that we attend church on a regular basis. I enjoyed church for the most
part. I went to Sunday school and it was there that I got rooted and grounded
in the Word of God. The Bible stories and lessons were fascinating to me,
and
its truths have remained in me to this very day.

In 1974, I met a
beautiful young girl named Deborah. She is a year younger than me. I knew the
day I met her that she would one day be my wife. I was so confident that I
ran home and told my mother so. Deborah also grew up in a Christian home with
saved folk all around her. We were both inexperienced in a lot of things, so we
both shared a lot of firsts together.

In my senior year of
high school I began to drink and smoke weed. Deborah and I would spend a lot of
time together but she never messed with any of that stuff. I never got high
around her. Months later she became pregnant with our first child. I graduated
from high school and went away to college on a baseball scholarship. I believe
this was a major turning point in my life.

When I left for school
Deborah was about six months pregnant and it was tough. When her father found out
that she was pregnant, he put her out of their home. She went to live with one
of her older sisters. Needless to say, she didn�t want me to leave. We were
both young and were not prepared for this great responsibility. It had always
been my dream to become a professional baseball player, so I was determined that
I was not going to pass up this opportunity. My thinking was that this would be a stepping
stone to our future together.

Once away at school and
out from under any kind of authority, I went absolutely wild. I went to my
classes and also practiced hard, but I partied even harder. I was exposed to so
many things. Book knowledge wasn�t the only knowledge I obtained. Drugs and
women were the things that attracted me the most. The drugs loosened me up and
made me more out-going. And the women happened to out-number the men eight to
one, and probably experiencing that same freedom that I was, were there for the
taking. I was partying like a rock star and back home Deborah was catching
hell.

Pregnant, in her senior
year of high school, and not being able to live at home was tough to say the
least. I would come home for the weekends when I could. It was a six hour
drive from school to home. Our first child was born on Thanksgiving Day of that
year (1975) and I was there for her birth. I returned to school after the break
and continued where I left off.

After a year and a half
of playing school, it became apparent that I wasn�t going to make it as a
professional baseball player. And at the rate I was going, graduation didn�t
seem possible either. All of that pain and sacrifice for nothing. A totally
wasted opportunity.

I finally came home and
Deborah and I got an apartment. Shortly after that and still unmarried, we
had our second child. I got a job and we began to try to make a life for
ourselves. After the baby was born and was about six or seven months old, Deborah began
to work also. We should have had it made but I was still wilding out.

In 1979, I went to
prison along with my brother, for aiding and abetting in a Second Degree
Murder. By that time Deborah and I had moved into a house and we had four
children. They ranged in age from five years to three and half months. This
was a devastating time in our life. Times were hard. Very hard! It would take
me too long to detail that ten years of hell. So suffice it to say that God was
faithful and he made a way for her and the children to survive. He kept me as
well because this was a time when prison was rough. Guys stabbing and killing
each other on a regular basis. I was 24 years old; new to this kind of
lifestyle, and scared to death. However, God was with me every step of the way
and brought me through ten years without hurt or injury.

I came home in 1981,
determined to straighten up. I joined a church and we began going there as a
family.

Around 1986, I was introduced to cocaine and started smoking it. I really enjoyed the high. So
after I came home and got off of parole, I began to dabble with it again. I was
a minister and was really trying to do the right thing, but the pull was
strong. I had different places in the city I could go to get away from the
people that knew me. And eventually my stays away from home grew longer and
longer until I was just gone. I had a beautiful wife who loved me. But I -
like the prodigal son - chose instead the �Far Country� and all its pleasures.

My parents, my siblings;
everyone would come to my rescue every time I messed up. They begged me to get
help but I kept telling myself I could quit on my own. My Dad always taught us
a man wasn�t a man if he couldn�t stop doing something that wasn�t right or good
for him. He quit smoking cigarettes overnight. But all of us who have ever
been involved in drugs know that�s a different kind of beast.

I was addicted and I
knew I couldn�t kick it on my own. I was out there! Gone from my family and
everyone that loved me. Every now and then I�d call home when I knew no one was
there and leave a message to let them know I was alive. I didn�t want to talk
to them because I didn�t want to hear �it� anymore. I didn�t want them to see
me because I had lost so much weight and was looking bad, and I just couldn�t
stand for them to see me like that. Pride goes before a fall and haughty spirit
before destruction. My wife let me know later that all it would have taken was
one phone call and she would have come and gotten me, no matter what condition I
was in. That�s real love!

While in the Far
Country, all sorts of things were happening. I�ve been shot at three times all
at once. I�ve been in houses that were fire bombed. I�ve been in places where
everyone was beaten and I alone was allowed to leave. I�ve been caught in
police raids and released. I�ve done things to people that I am not proud of.
My mother�s friends would ask her, �Aren�t you afraid that Malcolm is doing all
those horrible things we hear about on the news?� and she�d tell them, �No, I�m
not worried because there are some things that Malcolm just won�t do,� and she
was right. I was a dope fiend with a conscience, by the grace of God.

During this time I had
people in my family die; my father-in-law died and I wasn�t there. My wife had
cancer and the Lord healed her. She has been cancer free for 20 years now, and
I wasn�t there. I was a mess!

All the while I was in
turmoil, I knew that I was doing something that I shouldn�t be doing and I
couldn�t stop. I was addicted to cocaine and the women -- the two went hand in
hand with me. I didn�t want one without the other.

I began to cry out to
God to stop me from doing what I was doing.

One night I was in a
hotel room with three or four girls and we were getting high and just talking. And
they were trying to figure out why a nice guy like me was caught up like I was.
I would wonder the same thing about them. So we began to tell our stories.
When I told them about my Christian upbringing and being a minister, they began
to laugh and say, �Naw � not YOU?!� So I had them look in the drawer. You know
- most every hotel has a Bible in it and they handed it to me. I began to
minister to them. That�s right! We had a plate of cocaine in the middle of the
bed and I was reading the Word of God to them � telling them about God�s love.
And then we went to doing our thing. To this day I don�t know what effect that
night had on any of them. That�s up to God. I�m just glad I did what God
placed in my spirit to do that night.

Shortly afterwards I got
into it with a guy and one thing led to another. It led to a problem that
caused him and a friend to jump on me and almost beat me to death. During the
altercation I shot and killed the friend and the other guy ran off.

I was on the run for a
couple of weeks and during that time I had dope, but it just wouldn�t get me
high anymore.

One night I was in a
hotel room and the police kicked in the door. They slammed me on the bed and
put guns to my head. When it happened, I wasn�t sure I was ready then either.
It was a scary time, but the Spirit of God came upon me. I heard a voice say to
me, �It�s over, Son. I�ve got you now.�

I spent a year in the
county jail fighting my case. And when I first got locked up, I called my wife
to tell her. She already knew because there had been a manhunt for me. But I
began to tell her how I was going to get myself together and come home to her.
She informed me that in my absence she had divorced me. I was devastated!

I was charged with first
degree murder, which carried a life sentence, so this was a double whammy. But
I didn�t despair. A country jail volunteer came to visit me and we talked, and
he gave me a Bible.

I began to pray and read
that Bible about eight to ten hours a day for a year. I quit worrying about my
situation and sought after God. I mean really sought after God! Before long I
was teaching Bible study in there. Praying with the guys, and they were being
found not guilty on their cases or their cases were being dismissed. Our wing
was known as the �Go home wing.� Everyone else was going home except me.

My mom would visit each
week, bless her heart, and then one day I got a surprise visit from my wife
Deborah. After she and I had visited awhile, she told me that we were no longer
married. That she had divorced me and that we would never be husband and wife
again. She then told me that she loved me, and that she would always be in my
corner. As much as I hated hearing about us being divorced, that last
revelation gave me a ray of hope. I was still madly in love with her and wanted
to spend the rest of my life with her. I hoped for the opportunity to redeem
myself with her and my children.

I continued to seek the
kingdom of God and His righteousness. I went through the trial and was found
guilty of Voluntary Manslaughter. I feel it should have been Justifiable
Homicide. Anyway the sentence guidelines were 0-15 years, and I was feeling
pretty confident that I would receive around five years. I was charged as a
second Habitual Offender because of my prior conviction. The Judge used that to
enhance my sentence and gave me 20 years.

Again I was floored and
couldn�t understand it. The Lord had been showing me all kinds of things in
dreams and visions. Preaching to large crowds, and being with my family, now
this? TWENTY YEARS?! My wife and kids were absolutely devastated. Again the
Lord spoke to me and said, �I told you I�ve got you, didn�t I?� So I had to
trust what He said.

As of 2009, for 11
years, I�ve been walking strong with the Lord. I didn�t understand why I had to
get 20 years, but I also honestly knew that I wasn�t ready to go back to the
streets. Not even after being in the County Jail for almost a year, I knew I was
not going to return to the Far Country that stole my life and stole the joy of
those who loved and supported me. I remember that when I was on the streets � I
asked God to stop me � and He did. We can�t ask God to do something, and then
tell Him how to do it.

It was good that I have
been afflicted, because now I know who God is and how important He is to my
life. I have no hope without Him. He continues to show Himself strong on me
and my family�s behalf, though I have many, many regrets for making so many
foolish choices in my younger years.

If God chooses to place
this testimony in the hands of just one young person who is being, or will be
tempted, to travel to the Far Country like I did � to taste of the pleasures of
sin for a season that will not only end up destroying so many precious years off
their life, but can literally lead them straight to hell � not to mention all
the anguish it will cause parents and brothers and sisters and relatives and
friends � then it will have been worth it all in writing it and letting it go
out on the Internet.

In spite of the
difficulties and challenges that come with prison life, God has done many
awesome things over these years. Too many to count, but I will tell you about a
couple of them:

Four years ago I was
transferred to Brooks Correctional Facility in Muskegon, Michigan. When I
arrived there, one of the first people I saw was one of the guys who had beat me
when I caught this case. Understand that it should never occur that two known
enemies ever be housed in the same prison. Prior to going there, I was an Elder
at another prison. I have a Christian brother there and we used to talk about
what would happen if I ever saw that guy again. At that time I didn�t think
that I was ready for such a confrontation. When it happened I wasn�t sure I was
ready then either. So I went to my room and began to pray about it. I wanted
to hurt him really bad for what he had done to me. And now it would be just him
and me. At the other prison I had told my friend that if I ever saw the guy, I
hope that God would give me the strength to love him, forgive him, ask him to
forgive me, and lead him to Christ.

Then God told me, �Now
get out of this room and be about my business.�

It was time to lock down
for the night, so the next day me and that guy went outside and talked for three
hours. We talked about the entire situation. When we finished, we asked each
other for forgiveness. I told him about the Lord and how He had prepared me for
our meeting. He said that if God could do all that � then he wanted God to be
the Lord of his life. Right then we prayed and he accepted Christ!

We continued to
fellowship and study God�s Word together, and we remain friends to this day.
This is a miracle, because in the world we live in, the street code says that if
someone does something to you � there must be some get back. They know nothing
about the forgiving power of our God.

I am very grateful that
this took place, because had it not, when we would both had been released from
prison one day and saw each other � there is no telling what may have
transpired.

As I continued to praise
God and do the things He has called me to do - preaching and teaching His Word -
being a minister of reconciliation - He has continued to put my life back
together.

Remember my wife telling
me that we would never again be husband and wife? Well, since the county jail,
she has remained faithful in my life. She understands that she divorced me
hastily, even though she had biblical grounds to do so. She says that I am, and
has always been, the love of her life and the man that God intended for her to
marry.

I quit trying to win her
back, but instead focused on my relationship with God. She was doing the same
thing. We always said that if it was God�s will for us to be together, then He
would make it happen. As God continued to work on both of us, we began to grow
closer and closer together.

He was showing me my
shortcomings as a husband and what was required of me, according to His word.
The closer we both got to God � the closer we got to each other.

Today we are closer than
we have ever been in our life together. I have never considered her to be my
ex-wife. Today reconciliation has taken place, and we are waiting for my
release so that we can be remarried. My relationship with my children is
awesome. I�ve had four grandchildren born while I�ve been incarcerated and my
children have made sure that they know who their grandfather is, and I�m so
blessed to see and talk to them often -- all to the glory of God, because I KNOW
He is the one who has brought this all about. He has been so merciful to me.

It says in Proverbs
18:22: �He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the
Lord.� And also in Matthew 19:6, �What God has joined together let no man put
asunder.� My life has been a confirmation of those two passages of scripture.
I continue to pursue my release through the courts. I believe faith without
works is dead. But I trust God. I know that everything that I have been through
in my life has made me the man that I am today. I am convinced that God will
continue to perfect that which concerns me. Everything has not always gone the
way that I�d like, and even now my family and I face some very difficult
hurdles. Even in all of that, I know God is able to do exceedingly abundantly
above all that I can ask or think. How much longer I will have to be
incarcerated is entirely up to Him. I believe He knows how much my family needs
me out there, but even in my absence from them, He keeps on making a way. My
wife and I trust God with all of our hearts, so all we can do is remain faithful
to that which He has entrusted us to do, and let Him take care of the rest.

Although my life has not
been what you would call a peaceful journey following God�s will for my life �
God has been with me every step of the way, in spite of my selfishness and
stubborn rebellion. My Pastor always used to say, �God is a keeper - if you
want to be kept.� Well, I�ve got news for him. God is a keeper even when you
don�t want to be kept. Once we give our life to Christ and mean it, we belong
to Him. He says that all that the Father �has� given to me will come to me and
I �will� give them eternal life. That he will not lose one of us, and that
nothing shall be able to pluck us out of his hand (John 6:35-40). I am a
living witness to that.

A lot of people may say
that had I died out there in the Far Country, I would be in hell today. All I
know is that like the Apostle Peter, there has never been a time in my life when
I didn�t love the Lord and knew that I was called to a higher calling. I am
here today. Alive and well. Saved and sanctified and full of His Spirit,
and
it�s all because of Him. I can�t take credit for any of it, and I thank Him
each and every day.

I encourage anyone
who reads these words to try Jesus. He is the real deal. No matter what you
have done in your life, God can take your mess and turn it into a glorious
message that can change others� lives as well. You can�t go wrong with Him. He
is the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE. And He is the ONLY way.

In closing, I want to
leave you with one of my favorite passages of scripture from the Bible. My
reason for doing so is because it has given me so much hope and encouragement,
and I want it to give others hope in that no matter what they may have done � no
matter how hopeless life seems for them � no matter how many bad choices they
may have made in the past, God can turn our mess into one glorious message � if
we will only give Him first place in everything of our life:

And we know that all
things work together for the good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He also did
predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the
firstborn among many brethren. (Romans 8:28-29)

PLEASE HELP SHARE THE
BEST NEWS GOD HAS FOR EVERY PERSON!

"And this gospel of the
kingdom [Jesus
died for sinners] shall be preached in all the world for a witness
unto all nations; and then shall the end come."
(Quote from Jesus Himself: Matthew 24:14).

Consider how many children in
"all the nations" have never heard YET what Jesus accomplished
for THEM at the cross? PLEASE HELP SPREAD THE GOOD NEWS TO THE LITTLE CHILDREN!

To help us share the Best News every
person needs to hear on this planet, randomly click FOR JESUS on just three (3) of
the JESUS DID IT! links below. It
will take just a few moments of your time. Please - that�s all you are asked to
do. God will reward you!(Of course, be highly encouraged to forward one or more of these video
clips to those who may have never heard what Jesus did for them on the cross ...
or may need to be re-reminded).

If this testimony has blessed you, would you
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Email:
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SO YOU WANNA TIP-TOE DOWN THE PATH
TO THE FAR COUNTRY, DO YOU?

Dear Reader - are you at peace with God? If not, you
can be. Do you know what awaits you when you die? You can have
the assurance from God that heaven will be your home, if you would like
to be certain. Either Jesus Christ died for your sins, or He didn't (He
did!). Are you prepared to stand before God on the Judgment Day
and tell Him that you didn't need
the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the Cross to have your sins forgiven and
get in right-standing with God? We plead with you ... please don't make
such a tragic mistake.

To get to know God; to be at
peace with God; to have your sins forgiven; to make certain heaven will
be your home for eternity; to make certain that you are in right-standing with
God right now ... please
click hereto help understand the
importance of being reconciled to God. What you do about being reconciled
to God will determine where you will spend eternity, precious one. Your
decision to be reconciled to God is the most important decision you'll ever make
in this life.

The staff and our ministry supporters so
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please consider taking a brief moment and share your blessing with us? It
is always encouraging to hear how God is using this ministry to touch lives for
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